Restaurant Review: Banana Tree Milton Keynes

Whoa I'm seriously starting to get so random right now. I've been writing about so many things in my blog but I think this is my first restaurant review haha. Expanding!

I was eagerly waiting for this restaurant to open in The Hub, Milton Keynes for a few months now. The cuisine is said to be Indochina. I've never tried that before but was really interested. I joined their mailing list as they were promoting it on the soon-to-be-opened restaurant but sadly I joined it too soon as the free dessert I received was valid only till the start of July and the restaurant opened like a week ago (it's now August). (╯︵╰,)

        First impressions: interesting. There's a chill zone as soon as you enter and bartenders greet you straight away. If you want to eat, you have to pass by the open kitchen on your left which is really weird. Never seen it before. (2023 update: haha, what a noob)

        Interior: something's missing. It has unique interior. Everything's wooden and it has lots of different spaces for you to sit and eat. But it feels like something's missing though. It looks like it hasn't been finished yet haha. Also the kitchen is all white tiles and it doesn't really fit all wooden front of house interior. (2023 update: wow, 2014 me really didn't understand the importance of materials used in kitchens. As somebody who has now worked in kitchens, it pains me to reach such bullish*t I've written before. But I'll keep these shameful posts to prove that we all grow up and mature. 🤣)

        Service: not too bad. The manager or supervisor who greeted us was really nice. Explained the menu since we were really confused. I still was confused even after his explanation but let's ignore that. Our server was obviously new in this kind of job. Self-conscious introverted girl. Was really hard to make her laugh even though my bf and I were all funny and easy going. I don't blame her. I was like that too when I started haha. I hope she'll improve. ｡◕‿◕｡ 

        Mains: weird portions, weird taste. I really wanted to try this Indochina cuisine. The ingredients sounded all randomly thrown together. It was so hard to choose. Also the main component of the dish comes by itself so you have to order sides separately. My bf ordered crispy chicken with mango and lime sauce and I grabbed seafood curry. My choice was probably the worst choice in history lol. Teeny tiny pan with I don't even know what. Honestly I found like one tiny piece of tilapia fillet, 3 prawns, 2 random weird fish cakes and some sponges (I've no idea what that was). Had all this with jasmine rice. Was pretty bad but I don't blame the kitchen. I wanted to experiment so I chose it. The rice didn't have much taste. (´＿｀。) My bf really liked his crispy chicken with egg fried rice though. Although I wasn't a big fan of his food either. I guess it's just not my kind food hahaha. What I didn't like was a big difference in sizes of main courses. All the prices were pretty much similar but the sizes were like WOW WHAT? After eating a teeny tiny pan of something I saw a huge plate of salads and meat and everything on other table. Whoa, jealous...

        Desserts: eh? Damn, desserts took me a while to choose as well. It's just sooo difficult with these weird combinations. After a long time analysing menu I finally decided to order Balinese 'Pulut Hitam' Pudding. It took so long for the kitchen to prepare it that I forgot what I ordered and when it came I was a bit surprised...

When my bf asked for a bill we saw a 'pancake' on the bill which wasn't what we ordered (the price was also different). It looks like this was a Coconut Stuffed Green Thai Pancakes. The stuffing was really dry and too crunchy... I loved the ice cream though hahaha. Yeah so unfortunately I didn't get pudding I really wanted to try. But you know what? Jasmine tea is just heavenly. ✿♥‿♥✿

        Price: damn expensive. Compared to the price we pay for a proper meal we get in other restaurants we've been so far in UK this is damn expensive. Our bill have never been higher than £43 and that's for a normal meal. Meaning either starters or desserts and mains (drinks included of course). And this time the bill was £49 only for a main course (they took the dessert off the bill because of the mistake, plus I didn't eat much of it, meh). And the sides are £4-5. Well, we weren't aware of that before going there and I had quite a lot of expectations unfortunately. I think if the meal is really impressive and good, then the higher price is understandable. But this was definitely not the case.

        Conclusion: won't eat, might come back for the chill zone. Yeah so before leaving we stopped at the chill zone and played some table football (first time in my life omg!!). Scored 1 point after I was almost defeated. Achievement! Lol. I liked how the bar zone is so separated, there are bar seats and also some hammocks in the chill zone. So perfect during the happy cocktail hour Mon-Fri till 7pm. Want to come back for that only lol.

        2023 update: so I did go back to Banana Tree a few years later and it was actually so much better. My taste buds have definitely matured thanks to working in different restaurants and being able to try so many different foods in my early 20s. Since it's been 9 years I don't particularly remember this outing but it definitely was overpriced. Good to know that Banana Tree did some changes and the mains are definitely of a more decent size and decent price. I did manage to try that dessert I ordered the first time, which is actually a Black Glutinous Rice Pudding and it was so damn good. Guess who tried to make it at home and it was a great success?? Yum! 

By the way this pic is also in my #100happydays project I'm doing on my Twitter. How come you haven't seen it?? Follow me on Instagram! I'm so active there recently, you'll love it. ♥(✿ฺ´∀`✿ฺ)ﾉ 

Happy experimenting (hopefully successful one lol) (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

Rinatsu~ | My Facebook page | My Twitter | My Instagram | My Etsy

I got rejected

Today I experienced the weirdest and most frustrating thing I've ever experienced during my job hunt.

Today I got rejected. Yesterday I had an interview for a waitress position in a French style cafe. I was accepted to the next stage and invited to come today to start training. I had a free evening so I decided to finally dye my hair. It's been a while and my roots were too frightening lol. I was aware that the copper dye I bought won't remove my burgundy colour, since it's too dark. My roots turned out really orange, causing a nice transition effect to dark red/burgundy. Kinda like inverted ombre lol!

This is how I looked yesterday after dyeing my hair:

Kinda dark, can't really see colours that well.

Aaaanyway, today I come for a training, joining the staff meeting and boom...
- You dyed your hair?
- Yes I did.
- It was darker yesterday.
- Yes it was.
- You can't work with hair this bright.

...okay. So it appears that the leisure centre this cafe is opening at, created some stupid rules about person's appearance. People can't have any face piercings, can't have any tattoos and can't have their hair dyed unnatural colours. They only allow shades of brown and blonde. I was told that if I dye my hair dark, they will hire me. I was in shock. I said I will think about it and went to do the induction course on the work laptop. After sitting for a while I went back to the manager and told her that I can't do this. I can't just dye my hair and it is sad that they judge a person because of the hair colour and doesn't consider person with colourful hair the same valuable staff member.

Seriously I was so shocked and angry and annoyed! Since when can you tell if a person is good or not just by looking at their hair colour??! You learn something new every day. What if the actual natural bright ginger would come to the interview? Would they ask to dye her/his hair dark too? Lol. Well, no thank you, I am not going to change myself to the way they want, so that I can work and hate how I look. This is just stupid.

All companies I have applied for talk about equal rights, asking so many questions about race, age, gender, etc all the time. I guess they should add *natural hair*(!!!) in their job description because this is the only discrimination since everyone's so equal lol...

I don't even consider my hair colour that crazy! My face isn't pierced, I only have 3 lobe piercings and had to grow my cartilage because it never fully healed for a few years and I don't have any tattoos. But this was my first time experiencing something like that... I'm speechless.

Yeah well, I'm not going to change my hair for sure... I look great.

Have you ever experienced anything like this? Tell me your story. ♥

P.S.: I don't hold any grudges towards that cafe. People are really friendly and great. The atmosphere is inviting. It's that stupid leisure centre's fault... Seriously what kind of stupidity just happened today...

Rinatsu~ | My Facebook page | My Twitter | My Instagram | My Etsy

First Impressions: Part II

Hey guess what? I finally decided I need to finish what I started lol. Here's my impressions blog Part II! If you want to read Part I click this link!

In this part I will continue posting random pictures (and by random I mean RANDOM) with stories from few months ago with impressions of UK since I came here. Enjoy!

I seriously love pound stores. So many goody goodies! Like this cereal for example. It has tiny marshmallows!! Could it be cuter?? The caption? Actually I dedicated this pic to my dear friend Lola, she hates marshmallows and I just can't help but think about her when I see them. xDD Sorry, I love you girl. (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤

I saw this poster in the VUE cinema, asdfghjkl; it was so cute! (I hate my old phone's camera) As many of you know this is the strawberry and piece of cake from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. Why it's rating is so small??? I think I'll rewatch this movie today. It's just too brilliant. :'D

Talking about cinemas...did you know that you can watch some few months old animated movies in Cineworld Saturday/Sunday around 10am for £1.50??? Crazy!!! (＝⌒▽⌒＝)

Having fun with English language. Even though I know what they meant...IT'S JUST TOO FUNNY!!! I mean seriously, who of the people who created English language decided to call ghost, the one that haunts old houses the same as god's spirit lol. Oh by the way, it was closed. The ghost might ran away from it's zone... *coughs* sorry I'll stop now. (no offence towards anyone. this is purely my stupid joke, I am tolerant as long as your beliefs doesn't hurt other people)

Sunsets are beautiful wherever you are... ♥

I had a job in a press for a few months in New Duston, Northampton and it would usually end at this perfect sunset time. Sadly it wasn't a perfect time for bus catching so I would usually come late and had to wait half an hour for another one...

...but who cares when you've got pasta!!! Hahahaha.

Oh yeah, at the end of the summer I found out that I am a freak when it come to ice cream. Why there are so many different tastes??!! I NEED TO TASTE THEM ALL へ(゜∇、°)へ

Oh yeah we tried the famous Nando's restaurant. Wasn't bad at all! Especially the never ending glass of the drink of your choice lol. And I just had to take the infamous bathroom selfie. The window was just too big not to... *guilty* (〃▽〃)

No wonder there are so many overweight people. There are soooo many ready food only left to cook in an oven for like 20 minutes. It is tasty but it is full of bad fat.

After eating all those ready meals for few months we just started to prepare similar food almost from scratch. It's so much healthier! Yes, it takes more time but it is so much fun! More people should try that... Experimenting is awesome. ヾ(。◕ฺ∀◕ฺ)ノ

Pasta bake!!! Yummy~ OMG haven't baked this for so long... ♥

I finally bought new phone and started taking better quality pictures. （＾ｖ＾）

Lithuanians will understand this one looooool... (hint: it's a swear word) (ノ＞▽＜。)ノ

And here started the longing for home...

Found a whole shelf full of Lithuanian sweets for 1 pound. These are so good! ♥

Got a postcard from my sis. She knows how I love owls. Brought tears to my eyes.

And sent this music key friendship necklace to my best friend. Miss her so much... ♥

One of the most important impressions I wanted to mention from the start. It's so different from Lithuania. Whenever you look up to the sky you will always see a plane here or there or at least a trail. It really amazes me and makes me realise how small we are living in this big country.

Stay impressed. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

Rinatsu~ | My Facebook page | My Twitter | My Instagram | My Etsy

First trip to London!!! Part I

Hey guys! Yes, I've been gone again but if you've been following me on Instagram or Twitter you know that I've been to London few weeks ago! I guess I was too lazy to spam my social sites with photos, so I'm just posting it all here. Gee, what's better than photos with a whole story under them?

First of all, SQUIRRELS!!! I love them, seriously. Even though my boyfriend's friend said that grey squirrels are bad, overpopulated, which lead to extinction (almost) of red squirrels on the main island. Yes, they are a lot bigger than red squirrels and can weight around 600g in winter (gaining around 120g) when red squirrels gain only around 25g during winter. Fatsoes!! Lmao. But still...squirrels!!! Why I'm saying this? Because I've never been this close to a squirrel before. I have heard stories that there are a lot of animals in UK who aren't afraid of humans at all but didn't imagine I would experience that!

Sorry for the narrow view, I keep forgetting that I need to record in horizontal position lol.

It was my first time seeing bikes standing just like that. A super easy (I think) way to rent a bike all over London. After looking at the price list for a couple of minutes I realised that it's too confusing lol and decided that it's cheaper to just get your own bike or use a public transport lol.

This was one of the most majestic buildings I saw that day. Seriously amazing. And sooooo many people in one place!!! A lot of them coming in and out but most of them just sitting around. I don't blame them, the atmosphere is amazing.

Oh yeah, FIY it's a British Musem. XD We just went straight in looking for a ticket sale booth. After seeing people just coming in and going straight to the show rooms and guard dgaf we were a bit confused but having a free pass around a huge museum is so awesome!

I think this was one of the first exhibits we saw. One of the most memorable for sure lol. Dat booty.

And this is how duck face was born... One of the funniest exhibits in the museum lmao.

After walking around and feeling kinda lost we walk into this beautiful place. The roof is so amazing!

We're so pretty. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

I just had to use my boyfriend for the size comparison. xD Someone's tomb. Okay, that seriously creeped me out knowing that someone's inside. D:

Here's my boyfriend looking freaking amaze. He wish he was this tall. (〜￣▽￣)〜

And now he's making funny faces this woman because he wish his head was this strong to hold a freaking roof lmao. 〜(￣▽￣〜)

Everything looks so majestic...

Fist bumping the history o (^‿^✿)

So sad this pic looks like crap. It looked so amazing. Deep dark colours and everything. ( T⌓T )

So this one is the last pic from the museum. And which just HAD to come out blurry... u___u It is one of the Macedonian times corona. Well, if it was not that blurry I would challenge you to find 3 cicadas and 1 bee because that's how it is called haha. So awesome.

I guess what amazed me the most was the room full of building parts from Greece. It was underground and the smell when you went down there was just...I dunno maybe I'm imagining or maybe it's just a smell of some preserving chemicals but the smell was so...old. You know, that smell when you visit some few hundred years old building. I kinda love that smell, makes me feel so weird and think about how would it be to live in the past...

We haven't even walked around whole museum! It was too big and we came too late haha, guard was already guiding everyone out (although there were still lots of people coming in! When do they actually close??). But we promised to come back next time we visit London. ｡◕‿◕｡

Since I don't want to flood you all with photos I am finishing my part I and hoping to show you part II very soon! ❣◕ ‿ ◕❣

Rinatsu~ | My Facebook page | My Twitter | My Instagram | My Etsy